Group A Barcelona Chelsea Bremen Levski Group B Inter Bayern Sporting Spartak Group C Liverpool PSV Bordeaux Galatasaray Group D Valencia Roma Olympiacos Shakhtar Group E Real Madrid Lyon Steaua Dynamo Group F Manchester United Celtic Benfica Kobenhaven Group G Arsenal Porto CSKA Hamburg Group H AC Milan Lille AEK Athens Anderlecht A is the clear Group of Death, PSV are ********ed, Hamburg should go through, and AC Milan is the biggest load of BS ever.
Re: Champion's League Draw (Beasley, Nguyen, Rossi, Feilhaber) PSV's group isnt that bad... whts funny tho... they showed a Beasley goal as the PSV highlight when introducing their pod... Chelsea got ********ed... but they should go thru...
Re: Champion's League Draw (Beasley, Nguyen, Rossi, Feilhaber) The real bullshit thing is the AC shouldn;t even be in the competition.
Re: Champion's League Draw (Beasley, Nguyen, Rossi, Feilhaber) and then they get a free pass into the knock-out stages
Re: Champion's League Draw (Beasley, Nguyen, Rossi, Feilhaber, Jamil Fearrington) Why do you think Hamburg will go through? Porto aren't nearly as good as under Jose but CSKA are a good side and I'd put them above Hamburg SV at this point. My bet is that its Arsenal and CSKA in the next round with Hamburg in the UEFA cup.
Re: Champion's League Draw (Beasley, Nguyen, Rossi, Feilhaber, Jamil Fearrington) I dunno, I think C is the group of death, because Galatasaray > Levski. In fact, since Bremen and Hamburg are roughly even, I'd also say Group G is also higher in line for group of death status. NOTE: I define group of death as most competitive group, and Barca and Chelsea are just too strong, leading to the situation that happened in Group C in the WC. But if simply the most talent in one pool is the issue, I would then go with Group G over group A, with Group C third. As for group lightweights, Group H is the biggest joke, followed by D and E. That leaves group B and F as the ones in the middle.
Re: Champion's League Draw (Beasley, Nguyen, Rossi, Feilhaber, Jamil Fearrington) Damn, just by the group parings the group stages are going be a be an absolute battle. doesn 't look like anyone has a favorable group, aside from Milan, which is a crock of shit. It doesn't matter who you are, when you get to this stage any of the teams are capable of earning points. Everyone fears going to Old Trafford, Nou camp, ect. but it is just ad tough to travel to places like Athens, Istanbul, Bucarest, Moscow, Kiev, where the travel is long and the fans are just as ruthless.
Re: Champion's League Draw (Beasley, Nguyen, Rossi, Feilhaber, Jamil Fearrington) I freely admit to never having seen the current CSKA side play before. I was going by reputation of the clubs. I know that Hamburg are considered one of the risiing clubs of Europe.
Re: Champion's League Draw (Beasley, Nguyen, Rossi, Feilhaber, Jamil Fearrington) have you seen the prices at Emirates? Unless the rich old people eating their Prawn Sandwiches (no offense to PrawnSandwich) are morphed into hooligans, I'm pretty sure the fans at places like Athens are going to be more intimidating than the ones in Chelsea, Arsenal, Barca, and Madrid. Liverpool and Old Trafford actually keep their prices reasonable
Re: Champion's League Draw (Beasley, Nguyen, Rossi, Feilhaber, Jamil Fearrington) At least Barcelona won't play Chelsea in the first knockout round now.
Re: Champion's League Draw (Beasley, Nguyen, Rossi, Feilhaber, Jamil Fearrington) It's Chelsea. You have to vote Conservative to be allowed into the gates. You want intimidating, it's not southern Europe (though playing in Italy is always a crap shoot) it's eastern Europe. The big stars in the west aren't used to playing on those crap pitches under high school gridiron lighting with fans shouting at them in very different languages. And, well, not to be crass but planes in Russia, well... All I have to say about the overall draw is Manchester United got the most favorable draw of any top seed.
Re: Champion's League Draw (Beasley, Nguyen, Rossi, Feilhaber, Jamil Fearrington) Any first-team time or bench appearances for Marc Heider at Bremen this season?
Re: Champion's League Draw (Beasley, Nguyen, Rossi, Feilhaber, Jamil Fearrington) Why didn't Chelsea get a top seed? Chelsea won the EPL ahead of Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal. Sure, Arsenal made it to the finals in 06 and Liverpool won it in 2005, but Manchester United got knocked out last year before Chelsea and finished behind them in the league. Is that much emphasis put on past results in the CL even if the results are in the distant past? Or is this simply the G14 trying to hold Chelsea down? Or something else?
Re: Champion's League Draw (Beasley, Nguyen, Rossi, Feilhaber, Jamil Fearrington) Simple math. It is explained well here.
Re: Champion's League Draw (Beasley, Nguyen, Rossi, Feilhaber, Jamil Fearrington) Well at least their is a reason behind it. Not a very good one, but a reason. Simple math, that fails to produce an accurate result. Manchester United was great in 02/03, which means they are great in 06/07. Chelsea was not very good in 02/03, which means they are not very good in 06/07. They might as well have added the following ways to win points: * 1 bonus point for every game where Eric Cantona popped his collar dating while wearing the 93/94 mustard and lime green away jersey. * 20 points for every year lost to a match fixing scandal (so Juventus doesn't lose their #1 seed) * -1 un-bonus point for every billion your team owner is worth. * -1 un-bonus point for every Yank Abroad on roster (another example of UEFA trying to hold the US down)
Re: Champion's League Draw (Beasley, Nguyen, Rossi, Feilhaber, Jamil Fearrington) I just get pissed off by the draw every year. The 32 team competition format sucks, waters down the group play. That's why I don't care that much. Domestic league play is the best.
Re: Champion's League Draw (Beasley, Nguyen, Rossi, Feilhaber, Jamil Fearrington) It doesn't really water down the field. It adds teams that are at least average for the field (like Hamburg and Arsenal).
Re: Champion's League Draw (Beasley, Nguyen, Rossi, Feilhaber, Jamil Fearrington) With two mega rich Russian and Ukrainian teams making the group stage, this is the strongest overall group ever, although Juve's absence waters down the top seeds a little. We'll see what Roma can do. Ah, poor Bremen ...
Re: Champion's League Draw (Beasley, Nguyen, Rossi, Feilhaber, Jamil Fearrington) y would they count domestic league play for a UEFA competition? this makes no sense to me... and u say the past? how do u judge a year-long competition w/o the past, but yet u count the previous year's domestic play... Chelsea should not have been seeded this year... 3 years of Champs League play should not weigh more than squads that have won titles and consistently get to the knockout rounds every year
Re: Champion's League Draw (Beasley, Nguyen, Rossi, Feilhaber, Jamil Fearrington) Maybe I'm in the minority on this point of view, but I really don't see why it matters where a team finished 5 years ago. How does a team with a different set of players, speak to the quality of a current team? UEFA is basically saying, while 99.9% of the population agree that 06/07 Chelsea are one of the best five teams in the world, we feel that due to the fact that 4 and 5 years ago, you were rubbish, you are really the 15th best club for 06/07. I guess I thought club competition should count because A) that how you qualify for the tournament and B) that is the most recent set of data to base rankings on. UEFA is basically saying, while 100% of the population agree that 05/06 Chelsea were better than 05/06 Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal we feel that due to the fact that 4 and 5 years ago, you were rubbish, while Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal were not, then 06/07 Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal are really better than 06/07 Chelsea. I guess my logic is horrible flawed.